This invention pertains to the art of processing sheet products and more particularly to processing a stack of sheet products to a conveyor system that handles each sheet product on an individual basis.
The invention is particularly applicable to receiving a stack of sheet products whether they be newspapers, inserts, periodicals, magazines, etc. The term "sheet products" will be understood to refer to these and similar products. The subject new apparatus is adapted to handle a high volume of sheet products for a variety of different operations.
By way of example, the sheet products may be a stack of newspapers received from a printing press. At printing press speeds approximating 60,000 to 100,000 newspapers per hour, downstream equipment must keep up with the supply and prepare the newspapers for handling in various downstream stations such as stuffing or inserting, stacking and the like. Prior processing machinery has been unable to maintain pace with the increasing press speed resulting from advanced technological innovations in that area. To accommodate the high output of the printing machinery, it has heretofore been necessary to employ plural processing devices to handle large numbers of sheet products. Even then, maintenance of plural conveyor lines associated with plural processing devices adds to the increased cost of handling sheet products. An increased need has developed to provide an on-line processing apparatus that is able to handle large numbers of sheet products in an efficient manner. The apparatus has to effectively convey between a stack of sheet products on one side and a conveyor system on the other side that handles each sheet product individually. Therefore, the apparatus must accurately and quickly separate the sheet products from the stack, quickly move the sheet products to an outfeed location, and present individual sheet products for pickup by grippers spaced along a conveyor system.
Further constraints are placed on the system because of the type of product; namely, sheet products which require special handling. The processing equipment must be able to adapt to various thicknesses of the sheet products as experienced in a newspaper processing system. Typically, the newspaper thickness will vary from day to day, or even in different printing runs on the same day. Also, the flexible nature of the sheet product requires special handling in transferring the product from a stack to the processing apparatus, as well as transferring this same product from the processing apparatus to the conveyor system.
Nevertheless, the present invention is not restricted to receipt of papers from a printing press but is applicable to any general processing of sheet products. It will be appreciated that the invention has broader applications in all these fields and may be advantageously employed in still other sheet product environments and applications.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved processing apparatus that overcomes all of the above referred to problems and others and provides an economical, efficient processing apparatus.